Archive for July, 2009

To the legion of concerned Irwin fans, I am happy to announce that Irwin is very much alive, rested and ready to step back into the recording studio after a brief hiatus to pronounce that I, Larry Miller, am killing him!

It started as a rumor, then a series of emails, and then a frantic phone call from a relative… Was it true? Was Irwin my accountant really dead? I immediately called to see if he was in fact okay and Irwin, shocked by the news of his untimely death, scolded me for disturbing him while he was watching “MythBusters” on the Discovery Channel.

I went on a trip to Japan in the late 1970’s and one night I ended up sleeping on something called a Futon. I’d never heard of one or seen one before. It was a soft mattress on a frame that you could use as a bed and then adjust to become a small sofa.

At the time I thought that was pretty neat.

I got back to California and the miniseries “Shogun” about Japanese warriors was a big hit, Americans were starting to eat sushi … so I figured maybe they’ll sleep on this bed/chair thing from Japan. At the time there were only two other places in all of Los Angeles where you could even find a Futon…

At the time there were only two other places in all of Los Angeles where you could even find a Futon. One was a tiny store in an area called Little Tokyo and the other was an even smaller store in a predominantly Japanese area of west Los Angeles. So I went ahead and imported a Futon from Japan and had the mattress part copied. But I had an impossible time finding anyone who could make the adjustable frame. Finally after many frustrating calls and trips everywhere I found someone who could make the frame…in Brazil!

Meanwhile, my dad (who was also my business partner) thought I was completely nuts. He told me, “Nobody is going to sleep on that bag of cotton!”

“I just don’t get it…where are all the chairs? Did you run out?” Years ago a customer from Studio City wondered why a store called Sit ‘n Sleep wouldn’t have a single chair for sale! And he’s not the only one.

I’m often amused when people are baffled by our name. I think almost everyone in Southern California knows by now that we sell mattresses because they’ve been hearing our ads since the early eighties, and we’ve sold more mattresses than any other chain in America.

Instead of giving you the answer right away, I thought you’d enjoy reading some of my favorite guesses customers have come up with over the years.